Data brokerages urged to create 'Reclaim Your Name' website

A woman holds an iPhone in front of an Apple store in Tokyo. A smartphone user's location and habits can be tracked through their phones and other mobile devices.

A woman holds an iPhone in front of an Apple store in Tokyo. A smartphone user's location and habits can be tracked through their phones and other mobile devices. (Koichi Kamoshida / Bloomberg)

Paresh Dave

This post has been corrected. See bottom for details.

The data-mining industry, which tracks down all kinds of personal information about consumers, faced a renewed demand Wednesday from a Federal Trade Commission member determined to get the vast databases opened to consumers.

Data brokerages gather information, including shopping histories, arrest records and credit reports. The information is then sold to other companies, such as marketers and manufacturers.

Last year, FTC Commissioner Julie Brill suggested that the companies create a website where consumers could go to see the information that’s been collected about them. They could then request that the information be deleted or updated. On Wednesday, she dubbed her initiative "Reclaim Your Name.”

“Reclaim Your Name would give consumers the knowledge and the technological tools to reassert some control over their personal data -- to be the ones to decide how much to share, with whom, and for what purpose -- to reclaim their names,” she said, according to remarks posted online.

Though Brill has heard from a few brokers with interest in adopting her proposal, she called on the entire industry to come to the negotiating table.

The FTC in December asked nine brokers to detail their operations, and a follow-up report from the commission is forthcoming. The nine companies are Acxiom, Corelogic, Datalogix, EBureau, ID Analytics, Intelius, Peekyou, Rapleaf and Recorded Future.

Acxiom and Corelogic didn’t respond to requests for comment.

[For the Record, 9:45 a.m. PDT June 28: A previous version of this post suggested that Datalogix collects information such as arrest records. The company does not.]